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Stay tuned for a post on how to easily incorporate vegetables into all meals. I’m just amazed at the excuses people come up with in relation to why they don’t eat enough veggies. I couldn’t imagine how bad I would feel health-wise if I didn’t eat enough fruit and veg. With so many easy options, there’s no reason for anyone to miss out on the nutrients and health benefits found in vegetables. A new post on that coming soon!
Poppit – As you may already know, my husband (Puppet) and I decided that we should each cook one new meal every week from my huge selection of recipe books. For someone so young, I’ve already acquired quite a number of different recipe books and it really has become a hobby and fun thing to collect (for me anyway!). I’ve got a number of ‘fancier’ books with lots of lovely photos and tempting ideas, but my ultimate favourite has to be any of the Australian Women’s Weekly (AWW) A4-sized recipe books that you can find in Coles or Woolworths for around $12.95. Not only do they have so many of these books in so many different themes, but as each recipe is “triple tested” by the Women’s Weekly cooks, they will almost always work if you follow the steps.
So, as I was waiting for Puppet to have a haircut over the weekend, I busied myself in the newsagent looking through the many different recipe books. After only a few seconds of glancing over the covers, a brightly coloured AWW book jumped out at me with a title that was just too much to resist – Macaroons and Biscuits!
I quickly bought a copy to add to my collection and spent the rest of my waiting time looking over each of the mouth-watering recipes. I’ve already made the Raspberry Macaroons which worked out quite well – still some changes I’ll have to make for my next batch though in relation to my oven and cooking times. I forgot to take photos though as they were eaten up almost as soon as they were made! I’ll definitely get some of my next batch, I promise!
My recommendation though, if you love baking and all things sweet, then this new book is definitely for you!
Now, you’d think one new recipe book for the weekend would be enough, but while we were doing our grocery shopping the next day, I noticed that Woolworths was offering a 2 for 1 deal with the AWW books. Although it probably wasn’t necessary, I had been eyeing off another one of their books, Wok Simple which had many different stir-fry meals. And then to find another one to go with it, I decided on 100 Meals in Minutes which also looked great (and I made my new meal of the week from this one – coming in the next post).
So, as my recipe book collection continues to expand, so does my love of cooking, baking and discovering all the different foods and techniques involved with each and every idea. Although some people may think that this hobby of mine is a little crazy, I love the fact that I’m being inspired by something which involves trying new things while at the same time involving my husband, family and friends. And let’s not forget, all of this and getting to eat delicious food…what else could someone ask for?
I’ve got another amazing, very cute book which I can’t wait to tell you about, but that can wait until next time. It’s definitely one of my favourites though! Stay tuned!
As the name would suggest, it would seem that this blog would be about the adventures and mishaps of someone cooking with a puppet – either a hand puppet or one on strings. Although this “Puppet” may sometimes feel like he’s on strings, this blog has been created to follow the cooking and recipe experimenting of a young couple whose nicknames for each other are Puppet and Poppit.
Due to his wife Poppit’s huge obsession with recipe books which have, until now, been sitting pretty on their bookshelf, Puppet decided that twice a week, they would each have to choose a recipe that they had never made before from one of the thousands of delicious ideas sitting on the shelf. This way they could have a break from the usual dinner meals and try something new every week while also making good use of Poppit’s recipe books.
The usual dinner conversation would usually go something like this…
“What do you want for dinner?”
“I dunno… you choose.”
“Something easy?”
“Curry? Chicken and Pasta?”
“Yeah, all right. That’ll do.”
Now, don’t get us wrong… the good ol’ faithful dishes are our favourites and most cooked for a reason. They’re delicious and satisfying every time!
But with so many recipes and options to try, we think we need to experiment more and actually cook different things!
On the baking side of things… we do have a legitimate reason for the lack of creations.
Let us just upload a photo of our so-called “oven” – the photo can speak for itself.
Try cooking anything other than one tray of cupcakes in this bad boy and you’ll realise why baking hasn’t been on our list of things to do. It’s utterly painful, besides also being pretty useless to cook in! The picture shown here is straight from the Sunbeam website. Don’t be fooled by the pleasant and deliciousness of that roast in there. From our experiences with this contraption, if you try cooking anything remotely more difficult than a cupcake (i.e. more than 15 mins of cooking time), then you’re going to be left with a burnt, overcooked meal. It’s just terrible! Plus we have enough of a hard time fitting 2 chicken breasts in there to cook let alone a whole roast and veggies. It’s just embarrassing.
And just let us also add, it’s not our choice to have this useless appliance. The rental property we’re in didn’t have an oven, so they provided us with this lovely item.
But this little oven will be our only setback and will just add a little bit more of a challenge to our cooking.
Let the adventures in the kitchen begin!!
Cooking with a Puppet 